Thanks for the fast replies! I was going to wait to reply until tonight when I could test more, but it sounds like wifi connection is the issue. I didn’t find this article until too late, but found it very helpful to reassure me that I’m not color blind 
I will try the steps here tonight and will post an update with my progress:
I’m using an AirPort Extreme which does support b/g so that shouldn’t be the problem. While I was 20’ away, I tested earlier from 1’ away as well.
Only other guess I had was that there’s a space in my SSID (speed central), but the credentials seemed to save fine, so that probably isn’t the issue either.